Fun News Round-up

Hey, The Internet!  Here are some fun things going on in my life:

• I'll be performing in Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind's Best-Of shows this coming weekend (December 16 & 17).  All the info is here.  I'm excited to share a super-pumped version of my song about Warren Buffett!
• I was just cast in Everywhere Theater Group's upcoming Flying Snakes in 3-D which will go up at the Brick Theater at the end of January.  I'm extra tickled because writer (and lovely lady) Leah Winkler is tweaking the script to feature my bump/unborn baby - our first official mother/son performance.
• I'm on Doollee!  If you don't know, doollee.com is a great website listing playwrights and their plays.  I use it all the time to find information about writers and their work and I'm ridiculously honored that I count enough as a writer to be on doollee too.  My listing is here and I'm extra-inspired to keep writing so that I can add to it!
• The play I was in last Summer - Dia De Los Muertos - was listed as one of the five best plays of 2011 by Indie Theater Now.  Check it out.
• I just completed Josh Pais's Committed Impulse class and that was super fun.

Hope you're having a fun December, too!

Bump

I'm in my 23rd week of pregnancy which, for me, is meaning that only the lowest-rise of my pants fit, my formerly body-skimming t-shirts are now body-hugging.  It also means, with my baby at just over a pound or so, the last third of my pregnancy will involve significantly more growth of baby - and therefore belly - than the first two. In light of all of this, a list of recent parts that came up for me on Actors Access that certainly would not be appropriate for a pregnant lady:

• "Exotic Dancer"
• "Passengers" ... seeking AFTRA and NON-AFTRA economy flight passengers ... All must be ok with period 1960s haircut if needed. No men over 6'1 and 35 waist and no women over 29 waist.
• "Suzanne" 30 to 35, the body of a triathlete . . . [no need to continue]
• "J" Caucasian, Male or female, 18-30s, ANDROGYNOUS in physical appearance. On the outside: fabulously dark drag performer--thin, tall, bewitching; on the inside: cold, austere manipulator. She is the perfect woman when she's a woman and the perfect man when she's not. J is a huge player in the underground club scene. [NOTE: This part also falls into the category below although it would drastically change the genre of the project...]
• "Claire" Fit, lean, a yoga instructor, she has an edgy look and is very liberal.

And here are some that I'd like to see a pregnant lady playing (although that is surely not how these parts were imagined):

• "Annie" 30-50, a kidnapper, calm, cautious and manipulative.
• "Women #1" Beautiful ingénue playing the Bald Soprano, a beauty queen, and others.
• "Baton Twirlers and/or Flag Twirlers" Seeking female expert/parade level baton twirlers and/or flag twirlers.  20 to early 30's. cute, sexy, fun.
• "Distinctive Face" person who might be interesting in playing the face that the lead character hallucinates through the darkness while delirious with cold [Although, here, I'd hope they'd include the full-body shot so that we could see that the lead character is hallucinating a pregnant lady.]
• "Barbara" Looking for an actress to play late twenties/early thirties, but still dressing 'just a bit' younger! Best friend to Rachel. Takes any opportunity to better any cosmetic part of herself that she can change. New hair color. New nip and tuck. Adopts [lead character's] dating app . . . and looks for her match everywhere there's a smart-phone. Which is everywhere. [I want to play this character while I'm pregnant! Comedy gold, no?!]

The more I think about it, the more I think a baby bump might be the newest, best shortcut to giving any character depth and an intriguing back-story.  ;)

Norman Corwin

A week ago, Norman Corwin died.  He was 101 years old and most people I know don't know who he was. At least one person called him the "poet laureate of radio theater" and I think that's a pretty apt title.  You've heard of Orson Welles - you know about his (excellent, expansive) work in radio.  Norman Corwin was doing just as much, if not more, than Welles but ended up less famous.

I discovered Mr. Corwin for myself when I was in college.  I'd been peripherally interested in radio theater for years and, during my Senior year, my friend Tammy and I teamed up to produce and direct a radio play as our "Senior Drama Thesis."  We chose Mr. Corwin's 'El Capitan and the Corporal.'  Along the way, we were given the opportunity to interview Mr. Corwin on the telephone - a conversation during which he said many inspiring things.  His passion for radio, for imagination and creativity was unmistakable.  When our play was done, we sent him a recording and he called us again to say he'd listened to it and to praise our work - a thrill and a point of pride for me still.

The New York Times wrote a nice, and illuminating obituary of him.  I didn't know about his post-radio career or the impact his politics had on his work. I encourage you to read it - he deserves to be known.

I'm sorry he's gone.

Genius in 15 seconds

A while ago, I was speaking with someone who works in advertising. She was explaining that when she watches commercials on TV, her company asked her (all its employees) to rate commercials on a scale that went from "Negative/damaging" all the way to "changes the way people think." I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist.I saw this commercial on TV last night and thought it fell into the latter category. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87XZ-gJsrKA

Wants

Here is a partial, randomly ordered list of things I currently want/wish for: 1. More theater and film roles appropriate for a pregnant lady.  I really like acting and I always wish for more opportunities to do it.  It's kind of a bummer that being pregnant cuts down those opportunities so significantly.  It wouldn't have to be about being pregnant - pregnant ladies do lots of things that are completely non-pregnancy-related all the time.

2. For NYC real-estate to be less harrowing and intense.  I know that as New Yorkers we pride ourselves on being tough enough to live in this super-difficult environment, struggling for quality of life . . . but I think with real-estate we've really gone over the top.

3. A glass (or 12) of wine.

Summer Recap

It was a HUGE Summer.  Here's what I did from June - Now:

• Played an Irish ghost (and my violin for the first time since High School) in the bi-lingual, western, epic, romance Dia De Los Muertos
• Made my directing debut with What The Time Traveler Will Tell Us at Incubator Arts Project.
• Took a 3 week run in Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (for which I wrote what might be my new favorite play of mine - a song about Warren Buffett called "The Sage of Omaha").
• Booked a VO for Citibank and had a great time recording that - I love being in the booth!
• Booked a principle role for The Onion News Network's second season and can't say enough good things about everyone I encountered during my day of work there.
• Took a 10-week writing class at ESPA with Tanya Barfield and got somewhere between 66% and 75% of my first full-length fictional (as opposed to Neo-Futurist) play written.
• Finished the first draft of the four-episode web series about the early life of Benjamin Franklin (re-writes, which I have been procrastinating, begin today).
• Let's not forget the (minor) earthquake and the (not-so-minor) hurricane Irene.
• Oh, and I'm pregnant (which has involved both being pregnant and keeping that mostly a secret until very recently).

It's been a great, busy, tiring, exhilarating few months.  Here's hoping I can whip my fall into a similarly delightful froth . . .

But what I really want to do . . .

is act. Ha. You thought I was going to say "direct," didn't you?  Well, although acting is my first love, lately I've been having a great time directing and I am very excited to tell you that this Summer I am making my directorial debut with:

What The Time Traveler Will Tell Us August 4 - 13 Incubator Arts Project St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery 131 East 10th Street (at 2nd Avenue) New York, NY 10003 http://www.incubatorarts.org/index.html

I describe this play as a one-man-show performed by two guys; as Mike Daisey-meets-early-Will-Eno. About time travel.

The writers describe it as "among other things, a live demonstration of time travel. It is the story of a man who breaks through the barrier between universes on a futile mission to cheat death, and of a woman whose reality is fractured by sudden awareness of an event that never happened. It is also the story of a loving grandfather who we might be remembering wrong, two murders (only one of which actually occurred), and, of course, toast."

Toast is delicious.  If you're in NYC, I really hope you'll come see what we've made - I think you'll like it.

Public Service Announcement

I just found out about Google Art Project.  It's like Google street view for museums around the world.  Amazing!

. . . worth 1,000 words . . .

I saw this photo on the most recent Style Rookie post . . . and loved it instantly.  She writes:

This photo from a 1938 issue of National Geographic captioned, "Anne and her family lived alone on an island. She enjoyed having tea time with her friends the spiny lobster and baby hawk."

I was meant for . . .

. . . the stage. (You know that song, right? If you don't, you should. It's posted below) Yes, Friends.  I'm in a play!  My character is an Irish lady who's killed in the Easter Uprising.  In the play, my brother and sister are in Mexico having fled from Ireland in the aftermath of the Easter Uprising.  I appear in flash-backs and as a ghost (woooooo!!).  Also I play the violin which is something I'd not done since the mid '90's and something I've never done on stage: exciting!  Here are the details:

Dia De Los Muertos July 13 - 31 Teatro LATEA At the CSV Cultural and Educational Center 107 Suffolk St New York New York 10002 http://teatrolatea.com/ (follow this link for a synopsis and tickets)

And here, as promised, The Decemberists sing "I Was Meant For The Stage"

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvmyNv6n55A&w=425&h=349]

4th of July Post #2

4th-of-July-related things that I love:

Thomas Paine

Abigail Adams

Historic Colonial Villages

Boat Shoes

Watermelon

Food on the grill

Ferocity

Stripes

Freckles

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day, Friends! I took yesterday off so I'm back to work today - I'm doing some writing for my play-writing class at ESPA, I've got a rehearsal this afternoon . . .  Later, in a nod to the holiday, I'll make dinner for me and my husband and then we'll go up to our roof and see what we can of the fireworks.

This Summer is absolutely my busiest (hence the lack of blogging) and, arguably, my best-so-far as an artist.  Ultimately, I owe that to my own artistic Independence:  I've been lucky enough these past couple of years to really have the time and space to dig in, to improve my craft, to work towards doing more and more work that speaks directly to my interests and passions . . . to do the work of being an artist.  Like I am today.

I was persuaded by Malcolm Gladwell when he told us that the self-made individual is an American myth.  Nevertheless, I feel I owe a lot of my pluck, my drive and my determination to my American roots.  Happy Birthday, U.S.A.!

Shorties

I have two short performances coming up: 1. On Saturday, May 14 I'll be performing in a site-specific play called Flier as part of Special Sauce Theater Co.'s series of Flash Plays.  I'll be by the Chipotle on St. Mark's.  Check the Special Sauce website or contact me for more exact info if you want to check it out.

2. On Monday, May 16 I'll be performing in Hard To Love.  There are a number of performances curated into the evening, all of which promise to be charming/entertaining/delightful/awesome.  My piece is a 15 minute piece about a sandwich's rise to Hip-Hop stardom . . . Can a sandwich survive at the top?  Will I be able to rap and dance at the same time?  Come out to Bar 82 on Monday to find out!

Beep Beep

I have some exciting news that I'm not quite ready to announce. In the meantime, i just stumbled across this fun article in the NY Times City Room blog about taxi horns.  Enjoy!

Locker 4173b

Locker 4173b is the name of the newest and just-0pened New York Neo-Futurists' primetime show.   That means it's a full-length play(1) that starts at a "regular" play-starting time(2), written and performed in the Neo-Futurist aesthetic(3).  The conceit of the show is that the two writer/performers - Joey Rizzolo and Christopher Borg - (inspired by an episode of This American Life) bought a foreclosed storage locker at auction and, donning the mantle of modern/urban archaeologists, made a show out of it.  The show is funny and entertaining and thoughtful and poignant. I've seen it twice already and plan to see it again: it's really good.

Here is info about the show.  If you want a date, get in touch with me and we'll go together and then we can have drinks and talk about art . . . that's always fun!

Footnotes:

• (1) "full length" as opposed to short form - like the 30 short plays in 60 minutes that comprise our signature show Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind
• (2) The show starts at 8:00 as opposed to 10:30 which is what time Too Much Light . . . starts every Friday & Saturday
• (3) The Neo-Futurist aesthetic is non-illusory.  That means we are who we are, we are where we are, we are doing what we're doing and the time is now.  Here's a great essay that explains it all written by the founder of Neo-Futurism, Greg Allen.

Things that go bump etc.

Tonight I'll be in (on?) Staten Island shooting a short horror film.  In honor of horror, a short list of things that scare me:

• Horror films (yes. I'd so much rather make them than watch them)
• Bugs, especially big ones, especially flying ones.
• Home Intruders (like, someone breaking into my house, especially if I'm home at the time)
• Rubbery whole-face masks (sometimes they merely creep me out, it depends on the mask and the context)
• Sleep No More (I think.  I'm kind of afraid to go see it . . .)

Lamb

Easter at my house is an, essentially, secular affair.  This year my mom, brother, husband and I gathered at my mom's house with my mom's two dogs, my brother's dog and our new dog for a low-key afternoon with some delicious crepes, some nice wine, and the traditional Lamby Cake!

This year's cake looks a little more forlorn than usual - the sadly tilted blue eyes, the slightly inclined head ("Don't eat me," it might seem to say) - but I promise you, it was as delicious as ever.  So are the leftovers in my 'fridge.

Summer!

I am so excited for Summer.  Here are my plans:

• Go visit my awesome friend Sarah in LA
• Take a 10-week play writing class at Primary Stages/ESPA (I'm thinking of this as grownup-nerd-summer camp)
• Go see the Brooklyn Cyclones play baseball
• Work on the Neo-Futurist Hip-Hop show including taking some kind of awesome retreat with the other collaborators
• Perform in Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind in NYC the first three weeks of August

Hooray!

Now, back to work . . .

Physical Fitness for Dummies

I downloaded a free app for my iPhone called 100 Push-ups. It's so simple its genius: the app trains you, over the course of 6 weeks, to do 100 push-ups.  That's it.

I'm only in week one but I really love it and here's why: it's my ultimate fantasy of goal attainment.  The app tells me what to do (whatever number of push-ups in a set, how long to rest in between sets) and if i just do what it tells me, I'll reach my goal.  If only everything in life was like that!!

Here's the website which is chock full of info and will get you to the app (you can do the program off of the website, sans app, if you want).

Broadcastr

On Sunday, I participated in a walking tour (of sorts) up 2nd Ave. from Houston to 29th, listening to the New York Neo-Futurists' contributions to the new (and exciting!) Broadcastr app.  It was a beautiful day and it was cool to have the shared, albeit simultaneously solo, experience of walking up 2nd in a loose group, listening to the same content.

"Wait, What?!" I hear you say.  "What's Broadcastr?"  Well, if you click on the link above, you can find out on your own.  My take is: Broadcastr links audio content and location so that, wherever you go, you can hear content related to that place.  It's international and it's a free app for your iPhone.  I'm sure it's more . . . visit their website.

The Broadcastr content is available all the time which means that if you want to go do your own 2nd Ave. walking tour, you can go and listen to some (or all) of it any time you want.  You can also listen NOT walking up 2nd avenue, I believe, by finding the NY Neo-Futurists under "featured" on the app but . . . that's not as much fun, since the content speaks directly about each block up 2nd Ave.

This gave me the great feeling of being a tourist in my own city and I'm looking forward to the next time I AM a tourist and firing up Broadcastr to see what the locals have to say.